News Archive

A Q&A with Violist Gabo Lewis, a Senior at Kaufman Music Center’s Special Music School High School and Member of Face the Music Gabo Lewis began his musical career as a toddler banging on pots and pans and took up the violin at age 4. A native of Burlington, VT, he first heard about Kaufman Music Center’s youth new music ensemble Face the Music at a…

Kaufman Music Center’s Merkin Concert Hall is delighted to announce a first-time grant from the Howard Gilman Foundation. The grant of $50,000 was issued to Merkin Concert Hall for its 2017-18 season, with presentations including Ecstatic Music Festival®, What Makes It Great?®, Tuesday Matinees, Broadway Close-Up and Broadway Playhouse. Upon receiving the gr…

Kaufman Music Center's Face the Music is the country's first youth ensemble dedicated to studying and performing music by living composers. Called "a force in the New York new-music world" by the New York Times, Face the Music is a unique youth orchestra made up of nearly 100 adventurous, energetic and creative young musicians and composers who perform all over NY…

On November 2nd, Devorah Rose Krieger and David Krieger hosted A Musical Evening benefitting Special Music School in their home at the Four Seasons Private Residences. Latin jazz star and multi-GRAMMY winner Paquito D'Rivera performed a private concert for the guests. He was joined in several selections by Special Music School fourth-grader Santiago Del Curto on the c…

Kaufman Music Center mourns the passing of Dr. Tzipora H. Jochsberger Z"L, founder of The Hebrew Arts School (now called Kaufman Music Center), on October 29 at age 96 in Jerusalem. May her memory be a blessing. Read Dr. Jochsberger's obituary in the New York Times. A celebration of Dr. Jochsberger's life was held at Kaufman Music Center's Merkin Concert Hall …

Next year, Kaufman Music Center will say goodbye to one of the longest-serving professional leaders of an arts center in NYC history. Lydia Kontos has announced that she is retiring as executive director after nearly 40 years of service to the center, with a target date of September 2018. The Center’s Board of Trustees will shorlty embark on a national search for a …

In January of 1979, Lydia Kontos, then a public relations consultant with a background in concert management, joined the staff of The Hebrew Arts School for Music and Dance as a member of the administrative team of the brand-new concert hall at the Abraham Goodman House. In 1982, she was named director of the hall – now called Merkin Concert Hall, one of New York Ci…